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So I have officially become one of “those brides.” You know, the ones that promise they will blog or post pictures “the day after.” Then reality hits, you go on your honeymoon, and after that you find out you want to be generic and enjoy time with your new hubs.

This post is just to let you know I’m alive {not gonna lie, flattered by the new Love and Sapphire followers! Hi Guys!}

I will be back up to 3 posts a week come Monday and slowly work my way back up to five. Until then, here is a tease of things you have to look forward to {or at least I hope so!} 🙂 Wedding pictures won’t be ready for a few weeks, but we are moving at the end of July so I have a lot of decorating ideas (Either fails or accomplishments, we will soon see) to share here in the mean time. We are moving to an apartment while we save for a house, so my goal is to make the new place look chic and homey, yet realizing Ikea & the thrift store is more reasonable for an apartment.

Now on for a few teaser pictures until the real ones come in. These are from my BFF and her dad. I know I’m biased but they turned out pretty darn good. I literally remember starting to walk down the aisle and seeing so many more people than I thought would come to the ceremony. Therefore, I instantly wanted to say hi to everyone; I was so overwhelmed with emotion. Then I realized that it may not be appropriate so I gathered myself. But I just felt so darn loved, and it was one of the best moments of my life!

Happiest moment of my life, my dad walking me down the aisle. Words can’t express what this ment for me and to see all our friends and family!

If my dad waking me down the aisle was my happiest moment, I don’t even know what this is! So happy for him to be my hubs and for me to be his wife. The start to a great day and life together! My hubs is my best friend. I’m a lucky lady. 🙂

And if you think I look happy in this pictures, just take a look at Jacob (the cat) and his brother Buddy. We came home from our honeymoon and Jacob could not be found… he was hiding like cats normally do when there owners come home after a long time away. We then picked up the Bud-man from my in-laws {still love saying that, I don’t know if it will get old} and Jacob came running out… They have been cuddling ever since. Pathetic… But in the cutest way!

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You would think that when I hit the MTGM (month to go mark) last week that I would have more important things on my mind then menus. Well I didn’t; and some people think I’m crazy. CoughMommaSheilaCough. I live for this crap. If I could spend half my day perusing the internet for wedding craft ideas and the other half wandering around Jo-Ann Fabrics I would!

The menus will serve two purposes; the first one being the obvious: telling people what they shall eat for the night. The second is not so obvious and will be revealed in a later post.

For now I am keeping it simple and showing you the awesome fabric I choose as an accent for our cute, adorable, and amazing wedding menus 😉

In other non-wedding related news, my homegirl Bethenny Frankel came out with a new flavor in her Skinny Girl line. I feel the need to share this news because Sunday I was shocked to see the amount of hits L&S.com received from people searching Carona-Rita recipes, which I supply the recipe in this post. So the Skinny Girl Piña Colada is my beverage if choice to highlight this week. (Because apparently L&S readers like crafting and drinking, awesome). It doesn’t live up to the first-born: Skinny Girl margarita. SG margarita is my number one choice so Piña Colada does pale in comparison (to be 100% honest) but it tastes a hell of a lot better than her Cosmo, which literally tastes like you are drinking an old bottle Calvin Klein perfume from the mid-nineties. I only tried a little of the Piña Colada because it was a little too sweet for my liking. I think it would taste better blended vs. on the rocks. Give it a try, and let me know! But try the margarita version first if you’re a Skinny Girl virgin.

I have mentioned it a few times, but I have never shown you pictures or gone into much detail about my weight loss. Growing up I would say it’s safe to say that I was a little chubby. I also grew pretty fast (I have been 5’9 since about 7th grade) so I always just looked “bigger” then all the other kids. Then I discovered sports. I played basketball and volleyball in grade school, and in high-school I played tennis. I also worked-out regularly. Nothing too intense, but at 5’9 and 158 I was pretty happy with myself.

College came and went and I can safely say I didn’t gain the dreaded “Freshman 15” like many others. The weight started to creep up on me a little, but it didn’t really hit until my first year as a post-graduate. By December 2007 I was working a job that I hated and I had just gotten out of a bad relationship. I was also living with my parents and literally had one friends in Chicago. All my friends moved around the globe after graduation and, to be honest, I was just sad and lonely. The one friend I did have in Chicago I did not really want to see. I just wanted to sit in my room, with my new dog, and be sad… and eat fast food. Buddy and I watched the entire season of Gilmore Girls together and shared way too many meals from Panada Express. I also quit my first job out of college because I interviewed at another company and thought I was a shoe-in. I ended up not getting the job and my nights of tv watching and fast food eating continued.

In the Spring I finally had a job prospect and it was time to take off those damn sweatpants and pick out a cute outfit to wear to my interview. The job was being a store manager of a small boutique on the North Shore of Chicago. I went to my closet and looked at all my cute clothes and tried to put on a pair of black work pants that I wore regularly just months ago. I couldn’t even get them past my thighs. It embarrasses me to even admit that.I had to make a stop to Old Navy, the only store that I knew of that carried larger sizes, and bought my first pair of size 22 pants. It was probably one of my lowest points; that and realizing I had tipped the scale at 260 lbs. I did end up getting the job and worked there for almost a year until the owner decided to close the boutique.

In Fall of 2008 I met Jonathan. I had also dieted for a few months and lost 10 lbs. I think I may have told him I lost 20 and that was for two reasons. The first being just to impress him and the second was to partially tell myself that I wasn’t this fat girl the rest of the world saw. That was just my outside, and inside there was a skinny and healthy girl ready to break free. I remember the first time I met Jonathan, I knew he was the one. I know it sounds stupid and it’s thing that people say in movies and fairy tales; but hey, I’m getting married at the end of April so I’d say my hunch was pretty accurate! 🙂 We were together a few months and then Halloween came. We went to a party at one of his friends houses (dressed as hillbillies) and it was so fun! I loved meeting new people and I realized I had a lot in common with these folks. And then reality struck the next day.

Pictures of the night before were uploaded to facebook.

I was still huge weighing in at 250. 92lbs more pounds on my body then my freshman year of college. I was also bigger then my boyfriend; and that did not fly with me.

Two days later, on my way to work (after eating a sausage biscuit from McDonald’s) I heard an ad on the radio. That’s when I made a personal decision to start weight watchers. The first week went well, but to be honest: I did the program half-ass that winter.

I would say that my epiphany moment was when Jonathan and I went for a walk in a beautiful forest preserve by our apartment (we had moved in together by this point). I could barely keep up with him and was out of breath way too easily. That’s when I realized I needed to lose weight, but not for vanity purposes; for health reasons. I walked almost every damn day that summer and followed weight watchers religiously. The scale finally started to teeter down 230, 220, and 215 by that winter. The holidays came and went and I said I would allow myself to enjoy the days (Christmas Eve/Day and New Years Day) not the entire holiday season. Those few months I didn’t lose any more weight, but I didn’t gain any either.

In the following few months I was offered a job as a manager at a store for “Plus Size Women.” I don’t want to blame the company, but when you are constantly being told by customers that are twice your size that you have a remarkable body it makes it hard to see the end goal. I didn’t stick to weight watchers like I did in the past but I did end up loosing a few more pounds and by that point and was finally under 200 for the first time in a long time! I mainly attribute my weight loss to having to run around a store, climbing ladders, etc. It was a constant workout.

I worked at that store for a few months but kept applying for jobs. I didn’t want to stay in retail, I just took the job because the economy is in the crapper and beggars can’t be choosers. By fall 2011 I was finally offered an office job and the company I now work for. But the difference is that I would be sitting on my arse all day. I quickly realized to continue to lose weight I would have to go back to sticking to weight watchers. I was also newly engaged and with the promise of trying on dresses in the near future I made a promise to myself that on my wedding day I will be content with my body.

In addition to following the ww program, I also began to work out. I started the program Couch to 5k and finished it. Before work I ran about 3 to 4 miles an average of four times a week. I also occasionally work-out in our apartment gym. I completed my first 5k on Thanksgiving of 2011, quite an accomplishment for a girl who could barely walk a mile two years before. I now just count my calories using a free app on my iPhone called MyFitnessPal. I figure since I am so close to my goal weight spending the $20 a month on WW is something I’d rather save, especially so close to our wedding. I also realize the aspect of what made WW successful for me is the tracking and keeping myself accountable. So far MyFitnessPal seems to be doing just that for me.

I’m not going to pretend that I am an expert, or someone who doesn’t make mistakes. I’m sure I can eat healthier, especially on the weekends. I do have an addiction to Diet Pepsi, but before I only drank soda, now I balance it out with a lot of water. I am also beer and pizza kind of gal, and I am enjoying life now. I take it one day at a time and one meal at a time. As of today I am officially 96 lbs down and only 6 to go until my goal weight. I am not sure if I will make it to 158 by April 28th, but you only get married once so I am going to enjoy myself. Along the same lines, I have learned a lot from my mistakes and I know when too much is just too much.

*This post is not sponsored by weight watchers or MyFitnessPall. I have just personally had success using both programs.

I have decided to participate in Confessions of Snowflake weight loss wednesday. Head over there for some encouraging words and links to other’s weight loss journey! 🙂

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Call me crazy, I don’t care, but I hate the normal table numbers that banquet halls usually give. I feel like you spend a lot of dough on this big day, and usually have nice centerpieces… why ruin it all with some generic plastic number? But I also didn’t want to waste a lot of money on something so trivial, what to do, what to do?

I did what many brides do and made a quick trip to Ikea and picked up some Tolsby Picture Frames. (Which I am 99.9% sure I only paid .99 cents a frame for, which is why they were so appealing; they must have raised the price).

I did a quick search on google for some free gray backgrounds, and cut out some numbers via my Cricut, and make some of the fleece thingys that I showed how to make here.

The frames are two-sided, so the table number is on the front…

On the back are various pictures of Buddy… I wanted to incorporate him here and there throughout the wedding so this was my way of having my B-Man represented. Plus, I feel like it may be fun for the guests to look at.

This week I will probably be posting a lot of project updates. Usually I save wedding projects for the weekend, but Saturday is St. Paddy’s day and Jon and I plan on spending it at our local Irish Pub! Very excited 🙂 So I will try to tackle as many DIY projects that I can during the week.

I had this image stuck in my head that I saw on Pinterest a few weeks ago, but I wasn’t sure how I wanted to incorporate it into our wedding. I love the burlap, but I am making burlap runners and didn’t want the table decor to be, well, too burlapy. So I decided to take some navy and yellow paper scraps that I had lying around and whip something up last night.

I am not entirely sold on the idea yet, but I think the hearts will add a little something extra to the table scapes. Plus they take only a few minutes to make, and lastly, why not add another DIY project when we are only 7 weeks away? 😉

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The sale I stumbled upon at Michael’s is at the top of my favorite list this week. I ran in quickly to pick up a paintbrush and came out with a two huge bags filled with 40% off “Spring Decor.” Or fabulous wedding decorations if you’re this girl! Done & Done.

Monday night I stayed up until 3am to finish these puppies. I mailed them out Tuesday morning two months exactly before the wedding. I can not tell you the relief I felt when I handed that box over at the post office.

Saturday Jonathan and I took my mom out to dinner to one of our favorite Irish restaurants in Chicago. Jon wasn’t feeling well so I ordered him a hot toddy. He had one taste and looked like he was going to upchuck toddies all over the table; so I took over and finished it off. Delish. Then I reminded him that he is marrying an Irish woman, so my at home remedies usually involve alcohol of some type.

These koozies. I think there are freaking hilarious, and stumbling upon them this week made me re-think our current favor ideas. I’m sure some people think they might be a tad tacky; I think they are amazingly awesome.

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I have had some friends and family ask where I came up the name with Love and Sapphire. Why sapphire? Seems kind of random, no? Well, me and Jonathan’s birthdays are both in September. His is the 15th and mine is the 30th. Although five years apart (I only say this because of remind him almost daily that he is older than me. Mainly for two reasons. First, declaring that my fiance is older than me makes me feel younger. Second, to remind him he should appreciate that a young hot lady like myself is marrying an old man like him. kidding!). Anyways, sapphire being our month’s birthstone has become my favorite gemstone. I think it looks classy but it also sentimental. For this reason, when it came to wedding band shopping priority numero uno was to find a band with sapphires. Sapphires remind me of Jonathan and how lucky I am to have found such a genuinely loving and caring man to spend my life with. Ok, I’ll end the mushiness there.

I plan on incorporating different touches of Sapphire throughout my wedding day accessories. First and foremost is my wedding band.

Second is the bracelet I bought from Etsy that I mentioned here. I absolutely love it and think it will look great with my dress.

My last accessory is the matching earrings from the same Etsy store. I contemplated buying them because I already had a pair that I bought 8 months ago from a sale on Gilt, but when I received the bracelet in the mail there was no question that the earrings would complete my look.

I ordered them Monday and can not wait for them to arrive! The only thing that makes me a little nervous is that they are so long and seem a little big. I usually wear the same stud earrings from Tiffany’s every day so these seem gigantic; but if you can’t bling it out on your wedding day then when can ya? My first dress fitting in this weekend so I am crossing my fingers they make it to me by then.

Does the name of your blog have a special meaning for you? Do you really like a certain gemstone?